In late September there was an active post in the forum that seemed to coalesce a number of complaints around the issue and posters presented a large number of examples of the OneBox showing inappropriately that Google could examine. On September 30th, Google chimed in and at acknowledged the issue. Numerous examples of the problem continued to surface throughout October.

Well it seems that during the hubbub yesterday about phone numbers, Google seems to have rolled out a tweak that has fixed many of the reported problems. The 3 & Lucky 7 Packs are now showing in place of many of the Authoritative OneBoxes on the general searches given as examples.

I tested 22 of the example searches from the forum post and 15 of those were now presenting the 7-Pack, the 3-pack or no Universal Local Result instead of the OneBox. Of the 7 others that weren’t, 4 were clearly spam and 3 were results that probably should have a Lucky 7 Pack presented. However in those 3 that should be presenting broad results, there is a certain ambiguity in the search due to the similarity between the business name and the search phrase.

Here are several examples from the post of listings still returning the OneBox on what are arguably general searches.

Thanks for stopping by. I did see it. I referenced the second part of the post yesterday. The issue with the phone numbers was a temporary glitch that Google has solved. As to the first part, what is showing is a Google test that is only in SF and San Diego at the moment.

That all being said, I agree that real estate at the top of the page is getting limited. It shouldn’t be wasted with irrelevant results. If a user is searching for “Hotels Falkirk“, one presumes that Google should show more than one business.

The Google changes last week scrubbed a bunch of map spammers from Locksmiths in San Diego, but today they are only showing OneBox results, and you guessed it, the only one showing is a scam/ map spammer.

For a brief shining moments it looked like progress was being made, and today, 3 steps back.

Further to my post on your blog a few weeks ago about Goole returning a One Box Listing in the search term’Livingston Locksmiths’ in the UK I have been wrking tirelessley to get my listing back.
The individual with the ONE box listing didn’t seem happy with his prime spot and decided to create another 2 listing from the same addres and it created a 3 box sytem with all 3 listing relating to carious names of his business. .

I have complained on 3 occasions to Goggle spam team about this but nothings has been done.
This has been running as a 3 box for a week up until someething strange happened today

After weeks of waiting I was finally relisted in Google maps in the search term ‘Livingston Locksmiths’.

I found myself in position B of the 3 box with the existing culprit now occupying A & C.

I was just glad to be back but after a few hours Google has now once again returned a One box listing. Can you explain this?

Has he realised that if he deletes the other 2 spam listings it would revert back to a ONE box and invariably know me out?

This is all getting frustrating. You will see from th 2 links that he occupies the ONE box in Livingston and in the search term ‘ West Lothian Locksmiths’ I’ve managed to knock him out position A but he still holds B, C & D

I wrote yesterday that google had switched from the one ad to a 7 pack. Well today they are back to showing an authoritative one for a search of Seattle wedding photographers, Seattle Wedding Photography and Seattle Wedding Photographer, the same guy with a spammy site. After all there are only about 300-400 other wedding photographers in Seattle but this must be the go to guy.

Mike, it seems to me that Google has reverted to an older version of the algorithm that was live ~3 weeks ago. Two bad oneboxes that I had seen, first disappeared for a week or so, and then reappeared after the phone number vanishing act.

You have to wonder if Google realise how much damage they cause to some businesses through broken systems like the LBL. Its becoming increasingly difficult for them to maintain this apparent “do no evil” mission statement.

If something doesn’t work properly, don’t roll it out en masse.

I am well positioned on terms like “seo leeds” but there is one boxes for things like “ppc leeds” and “seo services leeds” when really they should be 7 packs.

Yesterday I saw a lot fewer oneboxes on some of the targeted phrases identified in Google groups for maps. This morning, just looking at a few of them, I see the one maps back in place.

This very much reminds me of Google.com google dance phenomena of a few years ago. During those periods when algos were adjusted individual sites saw incredible roller coaster rides with regard to Serps rankings.

I’m not seeing changes in ranking order within Maps…but as regards these onemaps and the missing phone information from a few days ago, I’m seeing some significant changes in how data is being presented on a day to day basis.